


a long, hot summer

by faerietell (orphan_account)



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: F/F, F/M, Growing Up, Identity Reveal, Summer, fluff but angst because we must have both, idk where this is going, romance all the romance all four squares
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-18
Updated: 2017-12-18
Packaged: 2019-02-16 11:55:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,753
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13053504
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/faerietell
Summary: love is rarely easy. growing up is harder.adrien and marinette attempt both the summer after they graduate.(ladybug and chat noir fares no better).





	a long, hot summer

Sometimes, the little things went unsaid.

They didn’t talk about how the Akuma attacks centralized around one _college_. Or how many faces they knew. Or how likely it was that they knew each other, that they had passed each other in the corridors, had paused a moment and almost knew.

This is mostly because of Ladybug. She knows he would tell her everything, that he would babble on about the cluster of freckles beneath her jaw and the way she’s always half-asleep in the morning, but she stops him. She taps his nose or rolls her eyes, but the thing is, he understands. He breezes by it. He smiles and nods. God, he must fucking love her, because Ladybug doesn’t know if she could take it.

Sometimes, they talk around them though.

“My Lady,” he reaches to press a quick kiss to her palm, and she lets him. Sometimes she doesn’t. “What will you do? After graduating?”

She’s thought about this a lot. It’s been years of terror, but she cannot leave Paris. Not when Hawkmoth is still there. Chat Noir is ridiculous and bold and capable – but it wouldn’t be fair to him.

“I’d like to travel the world,” she confesses it to him because she can’t to anyone else. It isn’t like Marinette, really, a girl in love with the sound of a bakery in the morning and the romance of her hometown, of Paris. But she’s a dreamer, and it’s another languid dream. “But I got into university here. I’m only taking two classes – I got a job at a bou – a place, and you know, duty calls.”

“ _Me-ow_ ,” Chat agrees, and she rolls her eyes. “Don’t you hate when people ask that though? What are you going to do with your life?”

Her lips curl up into something between a smirk and smile. “Then why’d you ask?”

They’re sitting on the edge of a roof. It isn’t too high up, but the sky feels closer, overbearing and dark. It’s at the end of a minor Akuma attack, not even requiring any special powers from either of them, so they’ve paused to talk. They’re doing it more and more now, and Ladybug can feel the danger in it.

But she doesn’t stop.

And when he presses a kiss to her other palm, she doesn’t stop him either. “So you’d like my _purr_ fect puns better.”

“No.”

“Not even a little?”

“Nope.”

“You’re smiling, my Lady.”

She quickly slaps her hand over her mouth (almost an indirect kiss, almost), but it’s too late. “Shut up,” she rolls her eyes.

He does, with another wink, but they’re content to sit in the dark a little longer, watching the distant figure of the Eiffel Tower glow in gold.

 

 

 

 

**ur queen:** I GOT A TAT

 **king bae <333: **dude no way

 **ur queen:** FUCKING WAY

 **princess mari x:** Omg, pics or it didn’t happen!!!

 **model boi:** Yes, a picture! What did you get? Did it hurt?

 **princess mari x:** Wait, pls tell me it isn’t ladybug  
**princess mari x:** ALYA????

 **model boi:** What’s wrong with that?

 

 

 

“Don’t _leave_ me,” Marinette clings to her friend, letting her head fall on Alya’s shoulder.

“It’s not for months, girl,” Alya tells her, but she wraps her arm securely around anyway, offering a quick hug. “But I’ll text you fifty times a day. And we’ll Skype every night.”

Marinette only buries her head into Alya’s classic red plaid.

Across the ice cream parlor table, Adrien throws a mournful look at his own best friend. “How come you don’t love me like that, bro?”

“You’re everything to me, bro,” Nino nods.

They exchange a fist bump and a grin. Sometimes Adrien couldn’t believe he had made friends like these. Sure, there are people in the fashion industry he likes, had even grown closed to over the years – but his father had hammered in his head that they were _competition_.

Natalie, Gorilla, his father – they all owed it to him, had a duty. But Chloe clings on with those manicured nails, sure for the status and the wealth, but sometimes it’s a little because of history. But Nino is unshakeable, from the moment they shook hands on his first day of school, one of the few to be Akumatized because of nothing more than pain for a friend.

Alya’s own sharp smiles and streak of independence never fail to inspire him, and over the years, they’ve become friends outside of Nino and Alya dating. Even Marinette stutters less and smiles more, so while she might still be afraid of him, at least she likes him.

“Haha,” Alya separates long enough to roll her eyes. “But let’s talk science.”

“Physics project?” He asks, a little too eagerly.

Another roll of eyes. “No, nerd. Grad plans.”

His brow furrows. “Haven’t we talked about these?”

Marinette intervenes. “Alya means like the summer before we all get into a whirlwind of life and success.” She smiles again at Alya, proud and bright, and he kind of wants that smile for himself. Hold on. Where did that come from?

“Yessss, dude. So, party for sure, yeah? And something else cool.”

“Road trip.”

“Just what I was thinking, babe.”

Adrien exchanges obligatory third wheel looks with Marinette who returns it for a brief second before she looks down, digging into her vanilla-chocolate swirl and reddening. Ugh.

“I can’t though,” Marinette worries a napkin between her hands. “You know I’ve got that _thing_ I have to do this summer.” Neither Adrien nor Nino have been privy to what this is, but Marinette and Alya spend a lot of their time whispering about it.

“Not for weeks, girl, and I know we’re already ahead on prepping. No more excuses, Mari. We’re hitting the road.” Alya takes a lick of her ice cream cone with more decisive than he thought possible.

“Uh, I’m also busy. You know Dad’s always booked me for shoots… Fencing… Piano recitals. He’s trying to fill it all in before it gets really hectic at uni.”

Alya crosses her arm. “ _No Comprendo, senor_. You’re going whether you like it or not. One weekend is all I ask.”

“Maybe,” he shrugs, but he can’t make it. Marinette’s only busy, but Adrien has superhero duties. As much as he would like to, he can’t throw it all on Ladybug. Sure, she’s gorgeous and perfect and entirely capable of managing without him, but that doesn’t mean he’s going to ditch her.

She narrows her gaze at him (and pierces into his mildly feline soul) before moving on. “So, party, who can host? I’ve got too many sisters.”

Adrien throws on his my-Dad-would-kill-me look, and her gaze slides onto her boyfriend.

“You know my place is a no,” Nino shrugs. “You probably wouldn’t want to anyway.”

“Yeah,” she admits before turning to Marinette. “My bestie? BFF? Future fashion designer?”

“My… parents are out this weekend.”

“ _Great_ ,” Alya claps.  “Nino, alcohol. Adrien, you’re helping Mari set up. As for moi, food.”

“Sure,” he says, glancing at Marinette who seems to be involved in some silent glancing argument with Alya. “If you’re cool with it, Mari.” He winks and then immediately feels like an idiot.

“Oh, um, yes, of course, it’s to-totally cool, Adrien. Thanks.” She smiles, blushing prettily.

One day, she’s going to like him. Eventually.

Or… He’s starting to get an idea.

 

 

 

 

 **ALYABUG:** ur being such a WIMP

 **MARINOIR:** I AM NOT!!!

 **ALYABUG:** ur the 1 who said u wanted to confess before grad girl im just helping u along

 **MARINOIR:** I know I know and I appreciate it!! Im just scared hes going to react badly. Its just been so long.

 **ALYABUG:** if not now THEN WHEN live ur life babest

 **MARINOR:** did you HAVE to throw me and him together

 **ALYABUG:** yes yes I did its my godgiven right 2

 

 

 

 

Nino feels _right_ in her home. Somehow, he fits in among her sisters and knows how to steer around the people moving and which couch the remote’s been tucked under. He can kiss her just right even with the door left an inch open.

He feels right next to her too. He rolls his eyes when she gets into a Ladybug rant, but he’s the biggest Ladynoir shipper there is and huge on the Akuma victim support forum. He’s a bit of a weirdo too, and there’s something peaceful about his headphones on and his eyes shut that makes her fall for him all over again. Not to mention, the boy has insane talent with his tongue and her thighs.

It’s quiet for an hour, the strange little twilight hour where all the kids are out or have extra-curriculars, and they’re kissing heatedly on her couch. Her top is off, and his mouth is making its way down her throat, to her –

“Alya?” He pauses.

“Yeah?”

“When you’re gone… ”

Alya’s stomach churns, and she sits up. She needs the distance from him, a little away from those warm eyes and just kissed lips. She needs to think with her head, not her heart. “It’ll be six months minimum, ideally two years.”

It’s an amazing journalism program. It’s difficult to get into, and she gets the opportunity to travel around the world, work with different medias and meet professionals. She didn’t doubt the celebratory kiss Nino had given her upon the news. But she could taste the sadness in it too.

“Us?”

Between them, Alya is more words, and Nino is more action. She’s always chatting, trying to capture every moment with the right adjective, the perfect verb. It’s why she wants to be a journalist. Nino is all knowing glances and soft smiles and the beat of a soundtrack he sends her that tells her he loves her more than words ever will.

So that _us_ means everything.

“I don’t… I don’t want us to end.” She’s not as messed up with romance as Mari is, but with this, she sometimes struggles to word it. “I love you.”

“We can work it out,” he tries. “People do it.”

Sure, they do, but they feel like one in a hundred. When she voices this thought, uncertain and a little ashamed, he lifts up her chin.

“Yeah, but this is Paris, Alya. We live in a city of miracles.

 

 

 

Across the city, a leap onto a bakery’s balcony. It’s landing is sure, but it hesitates upon continuing.

Beneath the cat, a girl cuts up fabric, oblivious still to the footsteps of the cat. Or her best friend.

Both, really.

 

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i'm a tragic american who alas gets no french so hopefully i haven't totally trampled anything  
> pls hit me up at my tumblr (same name) and talk lOVE SQUARE with me  
> and let me know what you think!! or anything you'd like to see since i don't have a clear outline for this one!


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